I have nothing really useful to add except for some vivid childhood memories.
Our family made our first few coast-to-coast trips in dad's pickup truck in the late 60s / early 70s. We didn't have a camper or a shell, just foam pads, blankets, and sleeping bags.
I was around four or five the first time we drove from L.A. to Prince Edward Island. Dad told my brother and I to stay put until everyone was loaded onto the ferry (us boys rode in the back of the pickup). Once we were parked, dad said it was OK to climb out of the truck. For whatever reason, I had trouble climbing over the tailgate that time and I fell out and landed head first on the bumper of the car behind us. That was my first recollection of the terms "goose egg" or "knot" describing something on my head. My first experience on a ferry was limited to what I could see out of the non-swollen eye.
Once we got all set up at camp, dad took us on a walk along the beach. I had never seen a jellyfish before, but the low tide completely covered the entire beach with them. The entire beach looked like it was covered by raw eggs, as far as you could see. So much for swimming.
Later in the afternoon we saw a little tanker truck driving through the campground spraying something everywhere. We asked around to find out what it was, and we were told that "it's for the bugs". We didn't know what this meant until later on.
To young me, it seemed like the sun would never go down, but it eventually turned to dusk and we learned what "the bugs" were: "mosquitos the size of birds!" Whatever they had sprayed seemed to only energize the bugs and they were ready to party. We were no strangers to mosquitos on that trip, but those huge ones were more than we could take. Mom and Dad finally had enough and told us it was time to pack up. We loaded up and took refuge in the cab of the truck until we could catch the next ferry out of there in the morning.
The funny thing is that all those memories are kind of a bummer, but we absolutely loved it there. We all spoke fondly of Prince Edward Island every time the topic came up for years and years, but that was one of the few places we ever had to wave the white flag and retreat from.
